January 16, 2026: Over the past six municipal budgets, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has reoriented its spending priorities, placing a stronger emphasis on capital expenditure while curbing routine revenue spending. For the first time in recent history, the country’s wealthiest civic body has allocated more than half of its annual outlay to capital works, a shift that has taken place during a period when the corporation has been functioning without an elected council.
The change reflects large investments in infrastructure projects such as the Mumbai Coastal Road, the Goregaon–Mulund Link Road (GMLR) and several sewage treatment plants. Each of these projects involves expenditure exceeding Rs 14,000 crore and is either under construction or has recently been completed. In 2024–25, BMC recorded capital expenditure of Rs 36,900 crore, almost matching the Rs 37,332 crore earmarked for infrastructure that year. Officials said this momentum has continued, with nearly Rs 19,000 crore already spent on capital works in 2025–26.
Explaining the rise, a civic official said capital expenditure had remained subdued during 2020–21 and 2021–22 due to Covid-related disruptions. “Over the last two years, several major infrastructure works have been taken up simultaneously,” the official said. These include road concreting, water conveyance tunnels and multiple bridge projects such as Gokhale, Hancock, Carnac, Delisle and Vidyavihar. “Since many of these projects were executed at the same time, capital expenditure has increased substantially,” the official said.
At the same time, BMC’s fixed deposits have declined from a peak of Rs 91,690 crore in 2022 to around Rs 80,000 crore. Earlier growth in deposits was driven by development premiums, but a 2021 state government decision halved these charges. A senior official said funds were also shared with other agencies. “Out of this amount, BMC had to share funds with the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation, for which around Rs 2,000 crore was sanctioned,” the official said. “In addition, Rs 3,800 crore was given to MMRDA following a letter from the urban development department asking the municipal commissioner to contribute to metro rail projects,” the official said.
Concerns persist about basic civic services. Milind Mhaske of Praja Foundation said, “While large projects are important, basic services must not be ignored.” Advocate Godfrey Pimenta and Samajwadi Party MLA Rais Shaikh also raised issues of infrastructure gaps and oversight in the absence of corporators. Civic officials, however, said all projects continue to be monitored through administrative systems.
